cavestoryfandomcom-20200223-history
Ballos
Ballos is the hidden ultimate antagonist of the game and the final boss in the Hidden Ending, met during one of the difficult endings. How to encounter To encounter him, characters must have collected the Booster V 2.0 and the Iron Bond. Professor Booster must be ignored in the Labyrinth, and Curly Brace must be rescued after she drowns by bringing her to Waterway Cabin and then feed her a Ma Pignon, to receive the Iron Bond from her. Backstory Ballos is the creator of the Demon Crown. Brother to Jenka, Ballos was forced by his niece Misery to create it. Unfortunately, she was quite rude and harshly demanding. Due to this, Ballos cursed and doomed her (and also Balrog, but it is unknown how he became involved in this) to obey the one who wears it. In the Nicalis translation, Balrog refers to Jenka as "Auntie," thus implying that Balrog may be Ballos' son. As long as Ballos lives, the curse will not be uplifted, even if the Demon Crown is destroyed, as Ballos hatred and insanity is so deep that it permeates the Crown, making it to rise again if destroyed. Ballos originally was a good man, who had a very peaceful life on the surface many years ago. Like Jenka, he was known for wielding mysterious powers far beyond those of mortals, which he used to help many people, who loved and trusted him in return. However, the king captured him and tortured him non-stop, because he was extremely jealous of Ballos' magical abilities, generosity, and how the people trusted more in Ballos than in the king himself. Ballos eventually went insane thanks to the horrible torture, and so did his magical powers. The unnamed king was finally destroyed in the intense swirl of magic. Ballos' magic reduced the kingdom he loved and protected to ashes in a single night. Jenka then imprisoned him in the Seal Chamber hidden deep within the Island. For Jenka, she could not bring herself to kill her own brother. In the credits, Ballos is stated as, 'Hate and madness given flesh.' Gameplay If the player is able to collect and do all of the requirements stated above, they will have accessed the Blood-Stained Sanctuary. There is no time limit. After Quote and Curly make it through the end of the Sanctuary, they must face the Heavy Press in order to progress. Once defeated, it falls to the ground (Make sure you are not under it as it falls, as this is a guaranteed instant death) and into the "Passage?" area. This area will be quite familiar to you if you entered here much eariler via the Plantation. Unfortunately, the door to the Plantation is rusted shut and you can't open it at all. On the right side, though, you are able to enter the Statue Chamber. The statue carver is no longer there, and the Doctor's statue is now complete. The statues of the previous Demon Crown wearers are now destroyable. If destroyed, they drop energy crystals/hearts/missiles. Once you're finished, head down into the door which you were previously unable to enter, in the bottom right corner. You're now in the "Corridor." Walk a bit further and you'll see the spirit of a puppy. He tells you the only way to stop chaos on the island is to kill his master, Ballos. He claims Ballos is a man who cannot die and has powers way too powerful for even him to control. The dog then disappears, and you can then enter the door to the Seal Chamber. Ballos strangely welcomes you to his home. He tells you about his life and torture, and he then tells you he has waited long for this, for somebody to subdue him, ending his lecture with, "Now, kill me! Or... I--shall kill YOU!!" After that, the true final battle starts. Ballos can be a pretty tough opponent if it's your first time playing through, but once you know all his attacks and tricks, he's not really that hard. Phase 1 Ballos will immediately start off by charging at you repeatedly very fast and slams onto the ground, making bones jump out. If he's still alive after awhile, he'll send thunder at you (there are crosshairs for this so when you see one, be VERY quick and dodge when possible). And then after a while you will see a lot of crosshairs appear do your best to stand between them. Your best weapon of choice here would most likely be the Nemesis, as there is no energy crystal during this fight. Spur and Snake are also solid choices, as they have decent range as well as good damage output. The Blade is not recommended, no matter how good an idea it might seem, as it has a poor range and getting near him is risky because he moves very fast. Attack Pattern 1: Dashing at you horizontally, then vertically, then horizontally again, then vertically again. If he is going downwards on his final lunge, bones will roll along the ground in an easy-to-dodge shockwave doing 8 damage. If he's going up, bones will rain from the sky instead. He does this four times. Touching him while he's lunging does 10 damage; touching him while he's standing still does 3 damage. This stage is where you'll damage him the most. It's possible to kill him before this stage finishes. 2: Flies up into the air, hovers for a bit, and then sends six bolts of lightning at you. They're easy to dodge thanks to the Booster 2.0 and do 10 damage. You can damage him while he's hovering before he fires; there's a good five seconds there at least. 3: Sends a wave of several lightning bolts at you. These are easier to dodge, but will most likely make you panic, try not to as you'll have a greater chance of being hit. One of the most important tips in this fight is to try to panic as little as possible. Phase 2 After Ballos sustains enough damage, he charges straight for the ceiling (green devils also suddenly appear). He'll then crash down to the ground, transformed into a gigantic boulder-like creature. His weak spot is eye. This is most likely the easiest form to fight as long as you have the Spur or Super Missile Launcher. Charge up your Spur to MAX and when Ballos pauses, release the Spur shot right in the eye. If you did it right, then Ballos will take severe damage. Killing him without it takes much longer, giving you more time to make mistakes and take damage. In this phase, Ballos doesn't cause any contact damage; You could stand on him all day if you want to, but when he jumps up, you might get knocked off by the green devils. Note that missiles are extremely effective against Ballos' second form and final form. By quickly jumping during one of his pauses and standing next to his eye, it is possible to take over half of his life by spamming Lv. 3 Super Missile Launcher repeatedly. Just be sure to conserve them for the following forms. If you don't want to use missiles, or you don't have enough missles to kick off Ballos's last 2 forms, when Ballos pauses, boost up and stand right next to Ballos' eyes. It doesn't matter which eye you stand on, but once you get in that position, spam the Lvl. 1 Nemesis on Ballos. If you mash the fire button at faster rate, you can deal well over 200 damage to Ballos. You can also spam the level 2 King's sword, but it won't work as well. If you are running low on health, the green devils flying around the top of the area are very useful, as they leave hearts very frequently when destroyed. Attack Pattern There's a moment just after the boss battle starts where he's damageable but isn't moving yet. Perfect time for a charged Spur shot. 1: He jumps upwards at you. When he lands, he sends out a wave of bones similar to the 1st phase. If he lands on you, he does 16 damage, so avoid that. 2: After the every third jump, he pauses, enabling you to jump on next to his eye (white or red; it doesn't matter), and send out a fully charged Spur shot, which damages both eyes. Unless you're very fast and accurate with the booster, you should probably only try to attack him at these times. Phase 3 Ballos will then spawn out many eyes for protection against your attacks. Shoot them to make them all close up their eyes, rendering them invincible. Ballos moves around the walls and ceiling, dropping down skulls. The main body does no contact damage, but the eyes do 14 damage, so you'll need to try extra hard to avoid them. The Spur and Super Missiles are solid choices for this phase, but try to conserve some missles for Ballos' last form. Phase 4 After all of the eyeballs are closed, the platforms will appear. Jump on them quickly; the spikes will rise! He then shows a grotesque form, that has his facial features giving way to what appears to be screaming people and skulls, perhaps as a reference to all the people Ballos killed. The Green Devils will be replaced by unlimited hordes of red-faced Butes that act as a combination of the flying Butes and the arrow Butes from Sacred Ground, the eyes will still prevent you from making much damage to him. You can shoot off four of them but you'd best be careful; they'll be bouncing all over the room! The eyes that are still circling around Ballos will deal 10 damage, and the eyes that bounce across the room deal 5. Ballos also spawn red-faced Butes from his face. One common speedrunning trick that most people do is take damage from the spikes (Before Ballos cracks open and begins the final phase) without Super Missile Launcher, then boost up and onto Ballos's eye, unharmed by the invincibility buffer. Afterwards, the moment Ballos begins his last phase (When you hear a loud noise and Ballos cracks open) spam the Lvl. 3 Super Missile Launcher right in Ballos's eye. You only need 12 ammo in order to do this fully, and Ballos will be gone before you know it. If not, ignore everything else, stand underneath him regardless of the spikes and eyes, and blast whatever you like as fast as you can up at him. The spikes do little damage, 2, to be exact, so as long as you have enough HP to withstand in the spikes, do that. If you don't like taking damage from the spikes, or if you don't have sufficent HP, stand on the moving platforms and attack Ballos from there. If you have the Lvl 3 Blade after all this trouble, you can use it on Ballos and if will deal good damage to Ballos and the eyes. However, arrows from the Butes and the bouncing eyes pose a threat because even the slightest hit will de-level the Blade. One other thing, use your Life Pot here if you haven't yet. If you used it during the fight with the Undead Core, it's going to be much harder. Epilogue (Spoiler Alert) Once Ballos is defeated, the Nikumaru Counter stops and the player hears the words of Ballos' pain ( "''HOT... HOT... CAN'T BREATHE... SO PAINFUL... HOT... IT HURTS...) ''The walls attempt to crush Quote and Curly as a last resort. Then Balrog jumps in to save the two robots, and smashes his way through the ceiling as the walls come together. Quote, Curly, and Balrog decide to live in a peaceful place with a view, and the credits roll as Balrog flies them there. Gallery Ballos First Form.gif|Ballos - First Form Ballos Second Form.gif|Ballos - Second Form Ballos Third Form.gif|Ballos - Third Form Ballos Last Form.gif|Ballos - Last Form Category:Characters Category:Enemies Category:Males Category:Witches Category:Deceased Category:Bosses